Life under the Sātavāhanas

Among the Sātavāhanas, princes were often named after their mothers. Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi means 'Sātakarṇi, son of Gautamī'. What would your name be? If your mother is Kīrti, you'd be Kīrti-putra or Kīrti-putrī!

His mother, Gautamī Balaśhrī, was a powerful queen. She gave land to Buddhist monks and had an important inscription carved at Nāśhik. A coin of her son reads, in Brahmi, 'King Lord Sātakarṇi, son of Gautamī'. The book asks: what might putting the mother's name first in a king's name tell us?

Inscriptions in the Naneghat caves near Pune are about a widow queen who performed several Vedic rituals, even the aśhvamedha yajña! They name Vedic gods Indra, Chandra and Sūrya, and list her gifts (dāna): land, cows, horses, elephants, silver coins and more, to priests, guests, workers, scholars and monks.

These inscriptions are in Brahmi and include a few numerals (number symbols), some looking like ours today. One of many clues that our modern numerals started in India.

The Sātavāhanas worshipped Vāsudeva (another name for Kṛiṣhṇa), but supported other schools too. They often gave tax-free farmland to Vedic scholars, Jain monks and Buddhist monks, so they could study and practise.

The Karla caves (near Lonavala, Maharashtra) were made for Buddhist monks: huge pillars and a stone stūpa in the middle, all carved out of a hillside!

A yakṣha (a minor nature god) from the Pitalkhora caves has words on its hand: 'made by Kanahadasa, a goldsmith'. A goldsmith carving stone! So people's skills weren't locked into one trade.

In the 3rd century CE, the empire split into smaller kingdoms, mainly because of weak central control and a slow economic decline.